RIPOLL, SANTA MARIA di. — Benedictine abbey in the diocese of Vich, Spain.
The town that grew up around the abbey is situated 681 m above sea level, at the confluence of the Fresser and the Ter. The church of S. M. di R. is the most notable Romanesque monument in Catalonia. The church was consecrated by Abbot Daguino in 888 under the protection of Wilfredo il Velloso; a larger new building was constructed in 935 and enlarged in 971. In 1031 Olive razed the building to the ground in order to erect a new one with five naves, the lesser ones separated by piers and columns; a large transept and two towers at the corners of the narthex, as in Orléans Cathedral; six secondary apses in addition to the principal one. The side chapels were added in the 13th and 14th centuries; the choir in the 16th century; the carved wooden altar is now in the Diocesan Museum of Vich; in front of the high altar the floor is decorated with mosaic. There are statues of the Madonna del Rosario by Llimona and of S. Raimondo di Peñafort by Valemitjana. On the exterior, the bell tower is 40 m high. The marvelous, entirely sculpted portal of the 12th century has been called “the triumphal arch of Christianity.” From bottom to top, it represents the struggle between good and evil, rewards and punishments, and biblical scenes such as the crossing of the Red Sea, the rain of manna, the rock of Oreb, and Solomon’s judgment; then the elect, the triumph of Jesus Christ among the Apostles, the angels, and the elders of the Apocalypse; on the two jambs, the Apostles Peter and Paul. The cloister, one of the wonders of Romanesque art in Catalonia, has two levels of galleries (12th and 14th centuries) with 252 columns, the lower ones in violet jasper, the upper ones in granite, with capitals carved with religious, mythological, and popular scenes. The S. Pedro Museum contains a library rich in incunabula, a precious antiphonary, and collections of ceramics, wrought iron, etc.
Bibliot. Vatican. Reg. lat. 123 e Vat. lat. 5730. El Scriptorium de S. M. de R., in Catalonia monastica. 1 (1925), pp. 23-96; J. Lauro, Los gloriarios de R., in Anal. sacra Tarracon. 3 (1927), pp. 331-89; 4 (1928), pp. 271-341; E. Junyent, Le rouleau funéraire d'Oliva, abbé de Notre-Dame de R. et de St-Michel de Cuxa évêque de Vich, in Ann. du midi. 63 (1951), pp. 249-63. Enrico Josi